Brazilian K-pop Fans Drawn to South Korea and Forced Into Prostitution

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Seven Brazilian women aged between 20 and 30 were forced into prostitution in South Korea after being lured to the K-pop nation under the pretext of entering the music industry.

Five criminals involved in the case were arrested for trafficking in women, reported last Friday the Ilsan Dongbu police station in the Gyeonggi province.

According to the South Korean newspaper “The Asia Business Daily”, the scammers’ false promises were made through social media in July. They sent the victims airline tickets, saying that they would not have to bear the costs. “I’m going to make you a celebrity,”read one of the messages.

However, when they landed in the country on August 8th, the women saw their passports taken away and were imprisoned in lodgings in the city of Paju, also in the Gyeonggi province, where they were forced to prostitute themselves to pay for their travel fares.

The confinement continued until August 17th, when the Brazilian Embassy received a denunciation and called in the local police, who rescued the seven Brazilians and arrested five criminals. The victims are under state protection in shelters for immigrants.

Itamaraty announced in a statement that the Brazilian embassy in Seoul “is monitoring the cases”.

In March of this year, a sexual scandal rattled the entertainment industry in South Korea. Singer Lee Seung-hyun, also known by his stage name Seungri, had been charged of paying prostitutes for foreign businessmen in order to secure investments in his business, and was made suspect in a crime known as “sexual bribery”.

K-pop (abbreviation of Korean pop) is a genre of popular music originating in South Korea. While the modern form of K-pop can be traced back to the early 90s, the term itself has been popularized since the 2000s, replacing the term Gayo.

Modern K-pop “idol” culture began with the boy band H.O.T. in 1996, as K-pop grew into a subculture that amassed enormous fandoms of teenagers and young adults.

After a slump in early K-pop, from 2003 TVXQ and BoA started a new generation of K-pop idols that broke the music genre into the neighboring Japanese market and continue to popularize K-pop internationally today.